1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to skylight structures and more particularly, to a improved louvered skylight structure of the type typically mounted on the roof of a building and having a transparent or translucent material for allowing light to enter the building while also providing a plurality of louvers for permitting warm air, steam or other gases to rise through and exit the building through the fixed open louvers of the skylight structure.
2. Prior Art
The use of louvered skylight structures on the roofs of buildings for the purpose herein described is not per se new. The manifest advantages of having a skylight structure which allows light to pass into the building while simultaneously permitting warm air, steam or other gases to rise through the skylight structure and exit the building therethrough are readily apparent. The natural convective cooling provided by the use of such louvered skylight structures, particularly on the roofs of industrial buildings where heat or collected fumes might otherwise detrimentally affect the environment of the workers within the building, is highly advantageous. Such louvered skylight structures are typically of a substantially rectangular box-like shape, the bottom of which is secured to the roof adjacent the perimeter of an aperture through the roof and the top of which is enclosed by a transparent or translucent material which allows direct or diffused sunlight to enter the building through the structure. A plurality of louvers typically extending along the length of the sides of the box structure are normally provided to allow the passage of warm air, fumes or other gases to be convectively exited from the building through the skylight structure to the ambient environment. It is, of course, highly desirable to provide the aforementioned louvers in a configuration which while allowing he exiting of warm air and other such gases from the building, precludes the passage of precipitation such as rain, snow and the like from entering the building through the louvers.
In order to prevent such louvers from allowing precipitation to enter the building, it is necessary for the length and angle of the louvers to be such that there be no direct horizontal path through the louvers which would otherwise permit precipitation to enter the building particularly when there is also a strong horizontally directed wind such as during a gale storm or hurricane. While it is well recognized in the prior art to provide a louvered skylight structure wherein the angle and length of the louvers are sufficient to preclude such direct horizontal paths through the louvered structure, this louver configuration requirement has heretofore precluded one particularly cost effective and efficient method of manufacturing louvered panels to be used in such skylight structure. Specifically, it would be most cost effective and efficient to simply stamp out planar louvered side panels wherein the louvered portions thereof can be readily bent by appropriate machinery to assume the proper angle relative to the planar member to provide the exiting path therethrough. However, such a simplified manufacturing process inherently produces horizontal paths which result in the aforementioned undesirable precipitation induced leakage into the building through the skylight structure.
There has, therefore, been a long-felt need for a louvered skylight structure and method of manufacturing therefor which while permitting the most cost effective and efficient means of production of the structure's louvered side panel; namely, simply stamping out the side panels and bending the louvers to the appropriate angle; also precludes the aforementioned horizontal path problem which would permit the entry of water or other precipitation into the building through the louvered skylight structure particularly during a high velocity wind condition.